Take a look at the beta version of dw.com. We're not done yet! Your opinion can help us make it better.

We use cookies to improve our service for you. You can find more information in our data protection declaration.

Over 28 billion printed ads land in German mailboxes every year, wasting resources and polluting the environment, according to activists with the Deutsche Umwelthilfe group. They have urged the government to take action.

Activists say 42,000 tons of water and 1.6 million tons of wood are wasted each year producing printed ads

The German government should pass a new law to fight "a flood of advertising trash," said the country's DUH group (also known as Environmental Action Germany) on Sunday.

The group estimates that companies print over 28 billion sheets of advertising material every year in Germany alone, with the sole goal of dropping them into someone's mailbox unsolicited. This amounts to roughly one a day for every single resident.

"We cannot afford to produce printed ads by the billions that end up in the trash," said DUH chief Barbara Metz.

Currently, German residents can "opt out" from receiving junk mail by placing a sticker that says "No advertisements, please" on their mailbox, though this request is sometimes ignored by delivery people.

DUH is now calling for the government to implement an "opt-in" system, where only people who label their mailboxes as open for ads would keep receiving physical mail from advertisers.

"Whoever wants to keep getting ads, will get them," Metz said in a statement. "But we will save on the majority of the pamphlets that are produced thoughtlessly and never read."

The group pointed to the Dutch city of Amsterdam, which implemented a similar system in 2018 and has been saving 6,000 tons of paper and hundreds of waste disposal trips every year. Implementing an "opt-in" law across Germany would save up to half a million tons of carbon dioxide annually, they said. Companies should instead focus on online advertising, according to the association.

But passing such a law in Germany might not be a simple task. The country's Justice Ministry pointed to legal obstacles such as the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of advertising, and — when it comes to newspapers who have sections dedicated to ads — the freedom of press.

Answering a query from the German dpa news agency, the ministry said "a legislative initiative for a corresponding legislation had not been planned."

As calls for plastic bans gain momentum, plastic bags are slowly becoming artifacts from the past, with people increasingly using alternative ways to pack up their shopping. That's why the Museum of Everyday Life in Waldenbuch in southern Germany decided to dedicate a special exhibition to the history and design of plastic bags.

In the 1950, people still used baskets to carry their shopping. But during the 1960s, shopping morphed into more of a leisure activity, with shopping malls replacing more traditional retail outlets. By 1965, plastic bags became a common staple there: They were cheap, colorful and easy to mass-produce. And they could easily be reused for gift-wrapping later.

Businesses soon realized that plastic bags also provided them with prime advertising space. And many companies were willing to splurge a little when it came to designing them. Even pop-art icon Andy Warhol was in on the plastic bag game. Meanwhile, in Germany, famous graphic designer Günter Fruhtrunk (1923-1982) came up with the look of the bags for discount grocery store chain ALDI.

Forget Louis Vuitton, Furla and Hermes: In the 1970s and 80s, the most coveted bags in the world came free with every purchase. Carrying a plastic bag from a Rolling Stones concert or from your favorite music store was meant to reflect something crucial about your individuality — as advertising executives intended.

Curator Frank Lang and his team at the Museum of Everyday Life are faced with a difficult task: The only way to ensure the quality of plastic bags is to keep them away from other bags and flatten them. Only then can they be pressed in between large slides and hung up for display. Otherwise, they lose much of their shape, color and design — despite its reputation, plastic is also subject to decay.

Meanwhile, the environmental dangers posed by various plastic components have become a regular talking point. Animals can get stuck in plastic components and suffer or even die. And so-called microplastics can work their way up through the food chain and be digested by humans, something which may have unknown long-term health consequences.

The shopping spree of the future is likely to look quite different from this image taken in London in 2011. The world of packaging is adapting to at least some of the demands that environmentalists have been voicing for years. Politicians are also supporting a move away from plastic, with Germany aiming to ban plastic bags in 2020 and EU guidelines clamping down on other forms of plastic in 2021.

You can still say your own goodbyes to more than 1,000 plastic bags shown at the Museum of Everyday Life in Waldenbuch until July 3, 2020, which were selected from a whopping shortlist of more than 50,000 samples. There's also reason to keep revisiting the show: The museum intends to highlight a different set of plastic bags each month until the closing date of the exhibition.

© 2022 Deutsche Welle | Privacy Policy | Accessibility Statement | Legal notice | Contact | Mobile version